Cuban southpaw Livan Moinelo set a new SoftBank Hawks club record with 18 strikeouts on Friday at Meiji Jingu Stadium.
The first two series of interleague play are in the books, and they delivered plenty of fireworks. Hanshin Tigers superstar Teruaki Sato crushed four more jacks to push his NPB-leading total to 17, while Livan Moinelo made history with 18 strikeouts to set a new SoftBank Hawks franchise record. In a rare twist, both the Pacific and Central Leagues had undefeated days – the first time that’s happened since 2006. Now let’s look into the rest of the action.
Tuesday (June 3)
Chihiro Sumida’s gem
Hiroto Saiki threw eight shutout innings to lead the Tigers past the Fighters, 1-0, in a matchup between first-place teams.
Chihiro Sumida (Lions) tossed 8 ⅔ scoreless innings against the Swallows. Leandro Cedeno walked it off in extras (with some help from an error).
Allen Kuri (Buffaloes) lost against his former team, Hiroshima, 5-2.
Wednesday (June 4)
Jun Maeda’s eight scoreless frames
Yusuke Ohyama homered for the second straight night and Teruaki Sato hit two homers, but the Tigers fell to the Fighters, 5-4.
Jun Maeda (Hawks) threw eight shutout innings with ten strikeouts on his 25th birthday.
Pacific League teams won all six games on the day for just the sixth time in interleague history.
Thursday (June 5)
Jon Duplantier’s 12 strikeouts
Jon Duplantier (Tigers) fanned 12 batters over 6 ⅔ shutout innings against the Fighters.
Anthony Kay (BayStars) lowered his ERA to 1.02 with seven scoreless innings.
Isami Nomura (Hawks) went deep for the second straight night.
Pedro Avila (Swallows) won his first career NPB game.
The Marines beat the Giants in extras on a walk-off hit by pitch.
Friday (June 6)
Livan Moinelo’s historic night
Livan Moinelo (Hawks) set a new club record with 18 strikeouts over eight dominant innings against the Swallows. WOW. Final line: 8.0 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 18 K, 117 P, 28 Whiffs. He was just one shy of the all-time NPB record of 19 (shared by Koji Noda and Roki Sasaki).
Ryusei Takeoka (Swallows) hit a walk-off home run in extras.
Seiya Kinami (Tigers) walked off the Buffaloes in extras.
